Revealed: 6,000 schools have less than 100 students, 10 have none

Some 6,000 schools across the country have a population of less than 100 students, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has revealed.

In a stunning disclosure, Dr Ogamba told MPs that even as the audit is still underway, some 10 secondary schools were found with no learners at all despite having teachers.

This means that billions of shillings might have been lost on ghost learners spread across 2,145 under-enrolled primary schools. The CS said these schools had less than 45 learners each.

More money could have been lost in 3,979 junior secondary schools that had 90 or less learners.

According to the Ministry of Education, the enrolment in these schools is so low that they are considered non-viable, raising questions about how the institutions have been stayed in operation.

Ogamba said the Ministry will consider merging the institutions with extremely low enrolment or re-assigning teachers to schools where they are needed.

Even more shocking is the discovery of 10 secondary schools with no students at all, raising fears of the possibility that the government might have been funding ghost students in these institutions.

Appearing before the National Assembly on Wednesday, the CS revealed that the government has shut the schools down.

The schools with no student include Kiria Secondary in Nyandarua, Dr Machage Moheto in Migori, Ragia Forest High in Kiambu, Mugwandi Mixed in Kirinyaga, Friends Bulovi in Kakamega, Loiwat High in Baringo, Ngamba Secondary in Murang’a, Sintakara Secondary in Narok, Maji Mazuri Mixed in Baringo and Fr Leo Staples Girls in West Pokot.

Ogamba said investigation is ongoing to establish whether monies had been released to these schools previously, to determine whether there is fraud, in addition to getting evidence to submit for criminal investigations. 

Thousands of other schools are unable to verify the true number of learners in their institutions, revealing potential ghost learners in the country.

The clean-up was triggered by an earlier finding of the Office of the Auditor-General, which had raised red flags that some schools receiving government funding did not physically exist or could not prove the presence of learners allegedly enrolled.

Ogamba said the clean-up exercise is still ongoing. 

He further revealed that the ministry has held back capitation where data is questionable. Sh1.2 billion remains undistributed to schools with unverifiable enrolment.

In primary schools, the ministry received enrolment figures showing 5,833,175 learners across 23,889 schools. After verification, only 16,788 schools were cleared for full capitation.

A further 3,065 schools either failed to submit enrolment data or submitted data that could not be verified, and the ministry only released half of the capitation to these schools, pending further verification.

In junior secondary, however, enrolment figures submitted by schools totalled 2.43 million learners, but after verification, it emerged that the number was actually higher. Some 2.94 million learners in 20,630 schools were cleared for funding.

Still, capitation to 934 schools was withheld because they did not prove the existence of the learners they had declared.

At secondary level, 9,550 schools were audited, out of which 9,540 schools, supporting 3,259,650 learners, were cleared to receive full funding, while the remaining 10 were closed.

Ogamba said out of the requested Sh17.8 billion, the Ministry disbursed Sh16.5 billion to schools under Free Primary Education (FPE), Junior Secondary School (JSS) and Free Day Secondary Education.

The ministry is now facing growing pressure from MPs to explain whether the government has, for years, been funding learners who do not exist.

“Minister, you have officers in every county who have a duty to keep and update records of schools continuously and furnish your ministry. That public resources have been wired to non-existent schools for non-existent students, how many of your officers have been interdicted for doing this criminal act?” National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula said.

The CS said they are yet to interdict any officer because they have not completed the analysis of data collected, after which action will be taken.

“We cannot take action on anyone based on the data we have now because we have not concluded the exercise,” the CS said.

MPs demanded to know from the CS whether schools with zero or 15 learners have boards, bank accounts and vote heads and whether those accounts have been receiving money year after year.

The Committee told the CS to take action against officers responsible for submitting questionable data.

Ogamba said the Ministry of Education has saved at least Sh1.1 billion from the audit exercise, which would have otherwise been disbursed to schools that do not exist.

He said the information that the Ministry has collected through the verification exercise, which started in September, is now being analysed to determine issues that the National Assembly has raised, including whether the Ministry has been releasing monies to schools that do not exist and which schools they are.

But Wetang’ula wondered why the Ministry is investigating non-existent schools.

“If the school does not exist, the question of which school this is does not arise,” the Speaker said.